5 High Paying Careers For Felons

Everyone knows that felons are considered undesirables in the working world. Whether your felony conviction was violent or completely harmless like mine was, you may be finding it incredibly difficult to find companies who can look past our transgressions and give us hope for a positive future.

This list will show you 5 companies that hire felons and pay well. Some may even offer benefits and a higher cost, but it’s insurance nonetheless.

TruGreen is the very company that I work for. During the interviewing process (2 interviews total) I told them about the felony on my background. It’s non-violent, conviction is pending. The way it works, at least at my branch, is they review felonies on a per-case basis. Depending on the crime, you’re able to work here as long as it’s non-violent.

What they do:

TruGreen is a lawn care company. Essentially, you drive a company truck that is loaded up with the pesticides and other materials needed for weed control, mosquitos, etc. TruGreen bought a company called Scotts Lawn Care. They are the ones who do landscaping. I do not know about their felony policy.

Pay: Locations base pay differ, but at the branch I am hired in at starts you at $14.00/hr with plenty of hours (about 60+ per week) and anything above 40 hours is T+1/2. So roughly about 21.00 per hour.

Incentives: TruGreen offers a fantastic commission incentive on top of your hourly pay. During your daily route, you’re encouraged to make sales to neighbors of the customer. Whatever service you set up, you instantly get a nice commission from that sale. You’re also able to receive a 10% bonus check of your total earned sales at the end of the month.

Another nice incentive is during the off-season, TruGreen pays 100% of your unemployment and guarantees your job in the next season. I can’t find a reason not to work for these guys. They value they’re employees and they’re open to hiring people with mistakes in life.

Swift Transportation is a trucking company that hires basically anyone willing to do the work. Trucking is hard and sometimes dirty work. You spend weeks on the road and never get enough time with your family. This is a great career to get into if you don’t have kids and love to travel. Swift Transportation pays well, offers insurance and even pays your tuition to attend their trucking school.

What they do:

It’s simple. Transports goods across the country to other companies.

Pay: You get paid weekly on per-mile basis and also load deliveries. You can easily drive 2,500 miles in a week and sometimes more. Judging on my research, the Avery first year driver at Swift Transportation averages about $700-$900+ per week.

Remember, this is 3 weeks OTR (over the road) and 3 days home. That’s right, 3 weeks to 3 days.

Construction Companies

Any felon can pretty much get a job doing construction. It’s hard back-breaking work but the career opportunities are endless. The money is great, usually they offer benefits like health insurance and did I mention the money is great? Things are always being built and there’s always demand for construction laborers. If you have no experience in construction, you’ll start as a laborer. Some of the trades to get into are:

Brick/block Masonry ($13-$20/hr)

Carpentry ($13-$17/hr)

Concrete and foundation ($10-$17/hr)

Roofing ($10-$20/hr)

Flooring ($10-$16/hr)

Keep in mind the pay grades listed are ball park for starting laborers. Pay is entirely dependent upon which company you pursue. I loves working construction, but it’s extremely hard on your body. If you plan to make it a career, make sure you go for the long haul, otherwise you’re just killing yourself.

Offshore Driller

Another field where a felon can get a high-paying job is off-shore drilling. While oil drillers make decent money, they also are required to spend around 3 weeks to a month on an oil rig. This is usually followed by a two-week break. The job is available primarily in such areas as the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.

Pay: Average pay for a deck worker (entry level) is about $300 per day. That averages to be about $5,000 per month after taxes are taken out and working 5 day work weeks. Just have to find a way to get hired at one of them. If you persevere and put in the work to do a job like this, there’s no doubt you’ll be able to find one.

Computer Network Support Specialist

The broad field of IT has been known to provide some jobs for convicted felons who don’t have a history of fraud, theft, violence or computer related crimes. If you meet that criteria and already have some experience with computers or have a strong desire to learn, this would be a good path to consider.

These days, almost every company needs a fast, secure, and reliable in-house network as well as stable connectivity to the Internet. With the proper skills and credentials, your future may involve testing, analyzing, and troubleshooting various types of computer networks and minimizing the times when they are offline.

Pay: Entry-level starts out between $14 and $17 an hour. Average hourly is roughly $32 per hour for the experienced specialists and it usually requires at least an associates degree to get you started.

If you’re thinking to yourself that you can’t get an associates degree, you’re wrong. Applying online for financial aid can get you pell grants, which is free money from the federal government that you don’t have to pay back and would pay for 2 years of community college. 2 years at a community college gives you an associates degree, and almost any college offers a computer science degree.

If you’re a felon with any questions about how to kickstart your future, please leave a comment, and I’ll be happy to help you out. Everyone deserves a second chance regardless of your mistakes.

Author: Jason King

I am a 27-year-old freelance writer from Chicago, Illinois! When I'm not writing, I am spending time with my two kids, Reagan and Elijah. I love writing about travel, careers, nostalgic subjects and family. Follow me for more articles like this! If not, I still appreciate you stopping by.
View all posts by Jason King